How the state spent our gas taxes

In her decade in the Legislature, Rep. Joyce Mulliken, R-Ephrata, had never voted for a tax increase.

She rejected increasing taxes on alcohol this year. She said no to the tax that raised cigarettes 60 cents a pack. She voted against the 2003 nickel-a-gallon gas tax that raised $4.1 billion for transportation.

But last spring she did an extraordinary thing: She said yes when asked to raise the gas tax another 9.5 cents for roads throughout the state.

"This is the first time I've voted for any tax increase of any nature since 1994, when I first took office," Mulliken said. "But transportation taxes are user fees. I've had the business community thanking me for my position, and it's never easy for an elected official to go home and say she voted for a tax increase when I had a solid record of no new taxes."

What persuaded her, Mulliken said, was the state's performance with the money raised from the nickel tax that lawmakers approved two years ago, despite her opposition. It paid for a westbound truck lane on Interstate 90 in her district, and the project came in $300,000 under budget and 30 days ahead of schedule.

"I said to the regional manager, 'If the public puts on enough pressure you can come in under budget and early,' " she said.

Supporters of Initiative 912 aren't so confident in the state's ability to make the most of its transportation dollars.

They say the state has done a poor job managing transportation projects, and a recent KING-TV poll found that 70 percent of those surveyed said the state won't spend the gas-tax money responsibly.

Yet a more recent poll by Elway Research found that just 12 percent of initiative backers cite mistrust of the State Department of Transportation as their main reason for backing the measure.

Still, Brett Bader, who is running the I-912 campaign, says there's no accountability in how gas-tax dollars are spent. And the projects financed by the new tax would do little to alleviate traffic congestion, he said.

"I don't necessarily oppose a gas tax if the money is spent wisely," said state Rep. Toby Nixon, R-Kirkland, who voted against the latest gas tax. "My constituents say we waste billions of dollars on transportation spending that results in no congestion relief whatsoever. It doesn't improve the safety of our existing road system."

State DOT officials say such criticisms are unfair.

"The state has projects all over the state going well and being delivered on time, yet the residents who don't believe government can do anything is a drumbeat of cynicism," said Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald.

A review of the 13 nickel-tax projects completed by last June found that six came in under budget and eight ahead of schedule. Only one was over budget, another I-90 truck lane project, and one was finished late, a variable-message sign on Highway 395 in Kennewick.

In all, the nickel tax will pay for 225 projects across the state over the next decade.

Looking more broadly, the department has completed 349 construction projects funded by its 2003-05 budget. The work was expected to cost $123 million but came in at $109 million, 11 percent under budget.

The State Auditor's Office this summer began a study of the nickel projects to see whether the Legislature's intent for the tax is being followed and whether the money is being allocated correctly. If any projects raise concerns, they will be reviewed more closely, said Mindy Chambers, spokeswoman for the Auditor's Office.

The 9.5-cent gas tax includes $4 million for the auditor to conduct performance audits of the Department of Transportation. If I-912 passes, that money disappears.

Nixon said voters don't distinguish between state highway projects and other transportation spending. Many voters support I-912 because they don't like Sound Transit's $2.4 billion light-rail project or the ongoing drama over the proposed Seattle monorail, he said.

"In the people's mind it's all transportation," Nixon said. "It doesn't matter if it's not a state project. Too much is being wasted and it's not benefiting anyone."

Voters are mad that Seattle wants to spend $4 billion to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel, Nixon said, when it could be repaired for just $1 billion. The state considered, but rejected, repairing the viaduct because experts said the structure is brittle and deteriorating and the soil beneath it is unstable.

Nixon also said the plan to replace the Highway 520 floating bridge with no extra traffic capacity except express lanes won't help with congestion.

"The main need for traffic congestion in my district is the Novelty Hill Road [between Redmond and Carnation], which isn't funded," he said. "Add this to all of the other things people have to complain about and it's no wonder that I-912 will pass overwhelmingly."

The Transportation Department suffered a particularly painful blow last year when it abandoned a dry-dock project in Port Angeles after sinking $60 million into its development.

The state launched the waterfront project in August 2003, intending to build a facility to construct pontoons and anchors needed to repair the east half of the Hood Canal Bridge.

Within weeks of breaking ground, state contractors began unearthing the Indian village of Tse-whit-zen, portions of which date back 2,700 years. Test holes dug before work began had apparently found no evidence of the village.

The state finally walked away from the site after uncovering 335 intact skeletons and more than 10,000 artifacts.

MacDonald said he knows the Port Angeles project gave his agency a black eye.

Mark Hallenbeck, director of the Washington State Transportation Center at the University of Washington, said there is the belief around the state that taxpayer money disappears and there's nothing to show for it.

"It's the nature of when you give your money blindly to someone else and hope it's spent well," he said.

MacDonald said he's tried to shed light on the department's performance with a quarterly report called "The Gray Notebook" that details transportation projects and programs, both the good and the bad. The report can be found on the department's Web site, www.wsdot.wa.gov.

But overcoming the public's skepticism isn't easy.

MacDonald recently received an e-mail from a man in East Wenatchee complaining about a bump in a highway. If the state can't fix a bump, the man wrote, how can it be trusted with billions of dollars in taxpayer money?

"In the face of the work we're delivering, there's still a segment of the public focused on the bump," MacDonald said. "It's a catch-22. If we announce how successful we are, we've proven again we can't be telling the truth."

Gas-tax supporters hope the flooding of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina will show voters what can happen if infrastructure concerns are ignored. To make that point, the damaged Alaskan Way Viaduct — which would be replaced with the help of the gas-tax money — may well become a poster child in the campaign against I-912.

Hallenbeck, too, says those supporting the gas tax need to drive home the point about Katrina.

"The pro-gas-tax folks need a far more sellable argument," he said. "One positive thing out of Katrina: Guys, we're not making this up. It happens."

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com